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D' Fightin' Ones
D' Fightin' Ones is a 1961 Merrie Melodies short directed by Friz Freleng. When shown on television anthology programs like The Merrie Melodies Show, the title was changed to D'Fightin Ones. Title The title and the cartoon itself are parodies of The Defiant Ones, a movie about two escaped inmates shackled together. Plot Sylvester and the unnamed bulldog (both voiced by Mel Blanc) are on a truck headed for the pound. Both are shackled to each other and hate each other's guts. When the truck hits a bumpy road, the truck's back door opens, dumping Sylvester and the bulldog out. The two quickly run for cover, which is easier said than done due to being stuck together. After fighting over some food, Sylvester and the bulldog realize they must break the chains. However, attempting to blow up the chains with TNT and hammering it both fail. Later, while walking near railroad tracks, a train snags their chain. That night, the two sneak into the city and take brief refuge in an abandoned building when a spotlight almost catches them. They decide to disguise themselves in human clothes (with the other person hiding in a suitcase) and hop aboard a bus, but hightail it out of there when the bus is revealed to be headed for Sing Sing. In the final set piece of the cartoon, the bulldog gets an idea to hang below a train track that goes between two mountains, with the idea that the train will cut their chains. However, both realize it's a bad idea too late when Sylvester points downward, indicating that once the chains are broken, they'll fall hundreds of feet to the ground. Sure enough, Sylvester and the bulldog fall into a junkyard after their chains are cut. At first, both continue to argue about how dumb the plan was, but are briefly joyous when they realize they aren't shackled together anymore. However, they look down and realize they're now connected by leg via a pipe. They hear police sirens and hop down the road to escape. Availability * Streaming - Boomerang App Censorship On the ABC version of this cartoon, the following scenes were cuthttp://www.intanibase.com/gac/looneytunes/censored-d.aspx: * The bulldog punching Sylvester in the face after Sylvester pulls "a switchblade claw" on him. * The bulldog whacking Sylvester on the head with a stop sign. * The scene where Sylvester and the bulldog try to escape by hiding each other in suitcases, only to end up at a bus stop for buses heading to Sing-Sing Prison and the two running off when they discover the dreaded destination. Notes * Although there is no story credit for this cartoon, it is most likely that Michael Maltese wrote the story. Probably Maltese's departure from Warner Bros. to Hanna-Barbera in 1960 could've been the reason why his name would've been removed from the credits. TV Title Cards 14.png|''The Merrie Melodies Show'' Bnt891.jpg|''The Bugs Bunny & Tweety Show'' References also see the List of Sylvester Cartoons Category:1961 Category:Merrie Melodies Shorts Category:Cartoons directed by Friz Freleng Category:Shorts Category:Sylvester Cartoons Category:Cartoons with layouts by Hawley Pratt Category:Cartoons with music by Milt Franklyn Category:Cartoons with backgrounds by Tom O'Loughlin Category:Cartoons with film editing by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with sound effects edited by Treg Brown Category:Cartoons with characters voiced by Mel Blanc Category:Cartoons produced by John W. Burton Category:Cartoons produced by David H. DePatie